The present invention relates to a process for the oxidation of olefins to produce unsaturated aldehydes or mixtures of unsaturated aldehydes with unsaturated acids and to a novel catalyst therefor.
The production of unsaturated aldehydes and unsaturated carboxylic acids, e.g. acrolein and acrylic acid, has become of significant commercial interest in recent years and therefore many processes have been developed for the production of these products. One of such processes is by converting olefins to a higher oxidation state by reacting an olefin with oxygen in the presence of a catalyst. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,196 describes such a process wherein a catalyst of the empirical formula Mo.sub.10 Mn.sub.2 P.sub.2-20 O.sub.39-120 is utilized for the oxidation of propylene or isobutylene to form acrolein, methacrolein and acrylic acid or methacrylic acid. Many other catalysts are also known for such oxidations; however, research is constantly underway for new and improved processes and catalysts since most catalysts presently known suffer such disadvantages as short catalyst life, low conversions and/or low selectivities to desired products.